Philadelphia

Doctor From Montgomery County Admits Role in Selling Drugs to Addicts in South Philly

Doctor admits selling prescriptions to addicts at now-defunct clinic

A doctor from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania has admitted his role in peddling prescriptions from a now-defunct clinic in Philadelphia that specialized in helping drug addicts.

Seventy-eighty-year-old Dr. Alan Summers on Wednesday pleaded guilty in federal court to charges including conspiracy, drug distribution, money laundering and health care fraud.

"The charges that Dr. Summers have pled to are serious and the penalties for such crimes are severe," said Gary Tuggle, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Philadelphia Division. "Doctors take an oath to uphold specific ethical and medical standards; Dr. Summers failed to maintain those standards when he made the decision to engage in the criminal distribution of controlled substances."

Summers, who lives in Ambler, and two other doctors sold $5 million worth of controlled substance prescriptions -- Suboxone and Klonopin -- to drug dealers and addicts for cash while performing little or no treatment as required by law, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors claimed nearly 1,000 patients visited the National Association for Substance Abuse-Prevention Treatment (NASAPT) clinic on S Broad Street each month.

"We have a public health crisis in this county involving prescription drug abuse that is exacerbated by doctors like Alan Summers," said Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen. "Every doctor who abandons his or her ethics to engage in the prescription-for-pay culture is breaking the law. They need to ask themselves whether it is worth the money to put people in danger, to risk the loss of their medical licenses, and to lose their freedom. Our office will continue to investigate and prosecute those individuals whose unscrupulous and illegal conduct contributes to this deadly epidemic."

Two other doctors at the clinic also faced drug dealing and fraud charges. Dr. Keyhosrow Parsia pleaded guilty last month and a third awaits trial.

Summers will be sentenced in May. [[414511683, C]]

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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